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A blog by Bill Hess

Running Dog Publications

P.O. Box 872383 Wasilla, Alaska 99687

 

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Wasilla

Wasilla is the place where I have lived for the past 29 years - sort of. The house in which my wife and I raised our family sits here, but I have made my rather odd career as a different sort of photojournalist by continually wandering off to other places to photograph people and gather information, which I have then put together in various publications that have served the Alaska Native Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities.

Although I did not have a great of free time to devote to this rather strange community, named after a Tanaina Athabascan Indian chief who knew Wasilla in the way that I so impossibly long to, I have still documented it regularly over the past quarter-century plus. In the early days, my Wasilla photographs focused mostly upon my children and the events they participated in - baseball, football, figure skating, hockey, frog catching, fire cracker detonation, Fourth of July parade - that sort of thing. 

In 2002, I purchased my first digital camera and then, whenever I was home, I began to photograph Wasilla upon a daily basis, but not in a conventional way. These were grab shots - whatever caught my eye as I took my many long walks or drove through the town, shooting through the car window at people and scenes that appeared and disappeared before I could even focus and compose in the traditional photographic way.

Thus, the Wasilla portion of this blog will be devoted both to the images that I take as I wander about and those that I have taken in the past. Despite the odd, random, nature of the images, I believe they communicate something powerful about this town that I have never seen expressed anywhere else. 

Wasilla is a sprawling community that has been slapped down hodge-podge upon what was so recently wilderness of the most exquisite beauty. In its design, it is deliberately anti-zoned, anti-planned. In the building of Wasilla, the desire to make a buck has trumped aesthetics and all other considerations. This town, built in the midst of exquisite beauty, has largely become an unsightly, unattractive, mess of urban sprawl. Largely because of this, it often seems to me that Wasilla is a community with no sense of community, a town devoid of town soul.

Yet - Wasilla is my home and if I am lucky it will be until I grow old and die. Despite its horrific failings, it is still made of the stuff of any small city: people; moms and dads, grammas and grampas, teens, children, churches, bars, professionals, laborers, soldiers, missionaries, artists, athletes, geniuses, do-gooders, hoodlums, the wealthy, the homeless, the rational and logical, the slightly insane and the wholly insane - and, yes, as is now obvious to the whole world, politicians, too.

So perhaps, if one were to search hard enough, it might just be possible to find a sense of community here, and a town soul. So, using my skills as a photojournalist and a writer, I hope to do just that. If this place has a sense of community, I will find it. If there is a town soul to Wasilla, I will document it. I won't compete with the newspapers. Hell no! But as time and income allow, it will be fun to wander into the places where the folks described above gather, and then put what I find on this blog.

 

by 300...

Anywhere within a 300 mile radius of Wasilla. This encompasses perhaps the most wild, dramatic, gorgeous, beautiful section of land and sea to be found in any comparable space anywhere on Earth. I can never explore it all, but I will do the best that I can, and will here share what I find and experience with you.  

and then some...

Anywhere else in the world that I happen to get to, such as Point Lay, Alaska; Missoula, Montana; Serenki, Chukotka, Russia; or Bangalore, India. Perhaps even Lagos, Nigeria. I have both a desire and scheme to get me there. It is a long shot. We shall see if I succeed.

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Sunday
Dec212008

Blog goes on hold until after New Year - Exceptions: Christmas, Kalib's one-year birthday (12/26)

DateSunday, December 21, 2008 at 7:43PM

I have a pretty good set of pictures from today and I want to run a series, but I just don't have the time to edit, process, place the photos and then to write. In fact, I have a huge project deadline sitting on me and until it is done, I have little time for anything else.

So, with great reluctance, I must put this blog aside for awhile.

I will come back as soon as I can (and I know that by then the 200 - 300 readers who have been stopping by on the average day will have moved on and forgotten about this blog) and when I do, I will be determined to begin working towards the larger goals that I set when I started this project.

It will take the kind of time that I have not had but I must find the way to make the time, as I have big plans and expectations for this blog.

As for the above picture of the Dearborn Farm dogs, it is not from today at all but yesterday. The good people at the Dearborn Farm were giving away free catnip for Christmas so I went and got some. Our cats have been stoned ever since.

As for these dogs, their primary job is to keep the Dearborn Farm goats safe.

I plan to return to Dearborn Farms to do some more pictures and blogging, too.

AuthorWasilla, Alaska, by 300 | Comment4 Comments |
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Reader Comments (4)

Love these pictures taken in the car mirror. I really must clean my mirrors so I can try some :-)

December 22, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterPhil Reaston

Are these dogs? They look like wolves to me

December 22, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterStandtall-The Activist

Lovely photo. I thought about driving out to the Dearborns for the free catnip. Had I known they have Great Pyrenees, I might have made a little more effort. ;) My great grandmother in North Dakota had pyrenees, great herd dogs. And how beautiful they look in Alaska's snow.

December 22, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSuzy

What majestic creatures. I wish they made dognip. Lulu sure could use some.

December 22, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterShaela

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